Food serving device



July 31, 1945. ZOIA 2,380,629

FOOD SERVING DEVICE Filed July 18, 1944 I N V EN TOR. fiecfor 6. Z ofaPatented July 31, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 6 Claims.

This invention relates to the art of rings and covers to be placed uponplates or other dishes of food for the purpose of keeping the food warm.Such devices are in quite extensive use in hotels and restaurants.Besides keeping the food warm, they serve also as a means of enablingthe user to stack one plate or dish of food upon another in nestingarrangement.

In the past such a device has been made of one piece 01 light sheetmetal either by stamping or spinning; but, with the present curtailmentof metal for such purposes, it is not now possible to follow thispractice in the manufacture of such devices.

It is therefore the object of this invention to devise such a ring orcover that can be made of metal but will not require the use of oneintegral piece of metal as has been the case in the stamping or spinningprocess of manufacture.

More specifically, it is the object of my present invention to providesuch a device that can be made in the form of a skeleton metal frame;and to which sections of metal may be applied to serve as an enclosingwall.

Another object is to devise such a ring or cover in which there aredepending feet so arranged that the device may have operative engagementwith plates or other dishes of food, even when the plates or otherdishes may be of different dimensions; and also in which such feet maybe made laterally adjustable so as to still further increase thelatitude of use of such a device with plates or other dishes ofdiiferent sizes.

Other objects will appear from the following description and claims whenconsidered together with the accompanying drawing.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a ring in skeleton form;

Fig. 2 isa perspective view of a. ring in which enclosing walls areapplied to a skeleton frame;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a modified form of leg which is providedwith means of lateral adjustment; and

Fig. 4 is a plan view of such adjustable form of leg.

It is to be understood that the present form of disclosure is merely forthe purpose of illustration andthat there might be devised variousmodifications thereof without departing from the spirit of my inventionas herein set forth and claimed.

In the present form of illustration I have shown an oval-shaped skeletonframe, indicated in Fig. 1, consisting of a lower oval ring I ofrelatively rigid wire and an upper smaller oval ring 2 of the samematerial, these two rings being connected at the ends and sides thereofby the members 3 of the same material.

The lower end of each member 3 may continue outwardly, as indicated att, and then downwardly as indicated at 5, so as to provide feet. Each ofthese feet may be braced by means of the still wire 6 with its endsconnected to the lower ring i and converging laterally towards the footand thence downwardly and angularly to the lower end of the foot towhich the wire 6 is connected.

The four feet are of suitable lateral extent to permit the same toengage about the edge of a plate or other dish even through the platesor other dishes may be of different sizes; and these feet havesufficient downward extent to ensure effective lateral engagement withthe dish to which the device is applied.

The several parts, above described, may be secured together by welding.This skeleton construction alone may be used as a means of stacking a.number of plates or other dishes of food one above another in nestingfashion. This skeleton frame may be made of wire or other suitablematerial of any desired cross section.

Instead of forming the skeleton frame in the manner just described, itmay be formed as a onepiece casting which may be used in the same way asherein explained for the welded wire frame.

In Fig. 2 I have shown the same skeleton form of construction as in Fig.1, with the addition of a side wall member or members for closing thesame, as indicated by reference numeral 1. The wall 1 may consist of oneor more pieces of light weight sheet metal which may be welded to thelower and upper rings 1 and 2 and the side members 3. The upper andlower edge portions of the side wall I may be turned inwardly about theupper and lower ring members when welded or they may be applied in anyother suitable manner.

In both of the forms shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the legs or feet are offixed form. But in Figs. 3 and 4 I have shown means whereby these legsor feet may be laterally adjustable so as to render the device stillbetter adapted for use with dishes of different sizes. In this case allfour legs and their bracing means will be constructed alike; and thebracing means 6 will each be provided with intermediate straightportions 6 extending parallel to the laterally extending portion 4' ofthe leg or foot itself. Then the downwardly extending portion 5 of theleg or foot and the corresponding part of the bracing means will beprovidedwith parallel portions 5" and 6 which have adjustable frictionaltelescoping engagement with the corrrespondlng parallel oortions of thefoot or leg and bracing means a and ii, respectively. With thisarrangement, the feet can be adjusted so as to more exactly fit the sizeof dish to which the device is to be applied in any given instance, andthe frictional engagemerit may be suiiioient to hold the feet or legs inadjusted position.

From the above it will be seen that my present form of device can bemade of metal but with out requiring the use of a single comparativelylarge piece of sheet metal; and hence it is well suited not only topresent-day conditions but it will mean a decided saving in the metalrequired in the manufacture of this class of devices at any time.

The skeleton form of device, (Fig. 1), is capable of use for the purposeof stacking a plurality of dishes of food in nesting fashion, while theform of device shown in Fig". 2 is capable of per forming all of theusual functions of any other such device.

The adjustability of the feet or legs permits engagement of the devicewith the plate or other dish in a more accurate manner in any giveninstance, thereby increasing its eiiective adapt ability to dishes ofdifferent sizes.

The idea of enclosing the skeleton form of device may be carried stillfurther by providing a depressed top or partial top member of sheetmetal which might have its edge portion welded to the top edge portionof the device so as to produce a cover, I i to be understood that thedepth of depression in such an. added'top will be suificient toaccommodate the bottom part of the plate or other dish which is to besupported thereupon in the regular manner of use that is followed inthis class of devices.

While my present device is here shown of oval form, it may be made ofany form desired.

What I claim is:

1. A food-serving appliance consisting of a plurality of rings arrangedabout the same vertical axis, the top ring being substantially smallerthan the bottom ring, upwardly and inwardly inclined spaced membersconnecting said rings, the space between said rings being otherwiseopen, and feet arranged at spaced intervals upon the bottom ring, saidfeet having downwardly projecting portions adapted to be positionedaboutthe outer edge of the dish upon which the appliance is placed.

2. A food-serving appliance consisting oi only an upper ring and a lowerring arranged about the same vertical axis, said upper ring beingsubstantially smaller than said lower ring, upwardly and inwardlyinclined spaced members connect is said rings, the space between said gsbeing ,cth ise open, and feet arranged spaced inter; upon said lowerring, said having outwardly extending port-ions between said 1" beingotherwisaopen, and a foot arranged at the lower end of each of saidconnecting memhers, each of said having outwardly extending portionsterminating in downwardly extending portions so as to afford means ofengaging the edge portion of the dish to which applied and therebyprevent accidental dislodgement oi the appliance.

A food-serving appliance consisting of only an upper metal ring and alower metal ring arranged about the same vertical axis, said upper ringbeing substantially smaller than said lower ring, upwardly and inwardlyinclined spaced members connecting said rings, said rings and inclinedmembers constituting a skeleton frame, and sheet metal attached to saidframe so as to constitutean enclosing wall for the space between saidrings.

5. A food-serving appliance consisting of only an upper metal ring and alower metal ring arranged about the same vertical axis, said upper ringbeing substantially smaller than said lower ring, upwardly and inwardlyinclined spaced members connecting said rings, said rings and inclinedmembers constituting a skeleton frame, sheet metal attached to saidframe so as to con stitute an enclosing wall for the space between saidrings, and outwardly extending legs arranged at spaced intervals aboutthe bottom of said enclosing wall and having their outer ends extendingdownwardly so as to afiord means of engaging the edge portion of thedish to which applied and thereby prevent accidental dislodgement of theappliance.

6. A food-serving appliance consisting of an annular body adapted torest upon the marginal portion of a dish and having its top of smallersize than the bottom so as to receive the bottom of the same size ofdish in nesting fashion, and

a plurality of legs spaced about the bottom edge of said annularbody,each of said legs having inwardly and outwardly extensible portions soas to vary the length of the legs for, dishes of different sis-es, andsaid extensib nortions having downwardly projecting portions adapted tobe positioned about the outer edge of the dish so as to preventaccidental dislodgement of the appliance.

HECTOR G. ZOIA.

